PowerBook - vertical lines of dead pixels on 17" screen

Apologies in advance - i am not technical! - but seeking advice on what appears to be a rapid deterioration in the screen of my 17" powerbook - now 20 months old. A month ago a "cream" vertical line of "dead pixels?" appeared in the left hand side of the screen - now i have a "blue" vertical line in addition to the the original line. Is my screen packing up? and if so, is this a common problem and why? I would be so grateful if anyone could help out!

Do you have Applecare? If not, then you're going to be in for bearing the cost of some serious repair work. If you were maybe a few weeks out of warranty, you might have had a slim chance. But at 8 months out? Next to impossible.

Just so you know, repair work on the screen can go upwards of $1,000. So don't be surprised if the repair will set you back a couple hundred

I took out applecare on my previous mac - and no problems - so didn't on my current problematic Powerbook - my fault! Do you know if this is a frequently occuring problem and if anything in particular causes it. I would not want to abuse this site - and would contribute in my own way if i ever could! Thanks

I assume you have a 17" PowerBook G4 1,67 GHz M9689 with a screen resolution of 1440x900. You probably bought it around Q1/2005. Your screen defect is a well known and well documented mass production defect which is denied by Apple. As of this writing there are more than 180 documented cases.

Do not waste your time posting into the Apple discussion board because this topic and all references to the sites listed above are censored and will be deleted as soon as they emerge in their forum to prevent people from noticing.

This whole story is a great shame for Apple. They deny all facts, cover up information and refuse to repair the devices.

The lower row shows my own PowerBook G4: On the right you see an earlier picture showing a cluster of about 8 lines. The left shows what it looks like now: One portion of the screen completely failed. All this 15 months after purchase.

Wow. I recently had my PowerBook repaired under extended Applecare for this problem, and it is from that batch. I had no idea this was a widespread problem or that Apple was being so dodgy about it. That's just terrible.

The vertical lines problem is a "well known" hardware manufacturing defect in certain PowerBook G4, one that Apple refuses to acknowledge. Your display will gradually degrade. In some cases, even if you pay to get it fixed, it may go bad again, if the repair isn't done properly. You can post about it in Apple forums, depending upon what you say, though many posts get edited by the forum managers. Some posts and threads have gotten deleted. Many are trying to pressure Apple into offering a repair program. If you'd like to be part of all this:

Note that when people complain to AppleCare in non-U.S. countries, that info is not forwarded to any central location, so Apple never finds out about worldwide complaint patterns that indicate a defect. Ideally non-U.S. residents should be sure to call U.S. HQ and PR so all the complaints hopefully also get to a central location.

@kbuc it's a common problem, like kder kay said, my buddy had the same issue, but Apple refused to take care of the problem since he was out of warranty, so then he was forced to pay for a repair or stuck with the issue, he ended up stuck because it was too costly to repair, I don't remember exactly how much but it was upwards of $400 I believe.